October 5, 2008
In Quotes: NLDS Game Three
"We didn't play well. We didn't deserve to win. We played well all year and for us to have three games like this is shocking." - Mark DeRosa [MLB]
"We were expecting more. I want to do more than play the part of the good loser." - Lou Piniella [MLB]
"We played three games like this before in the regular season. You just can't afford to do it in the postseason. We just picked a bad time to play like this." - Derek Lee [MLB]
"This was the worst baseball collapse and complete fall from potential that I have seen." - Rick Telander
"Well, thanks for watching, Chicago. Very sorry, Ron Santo. Too bad, Ernie Banks. Looks like it's Groundhog Day all over again, Bill Murray. We know you've seen this before with those huge eyeglasses, Harry Caray, even from way up there where you are. Cubs lose." - Mike Downey
"The butterfly walks and anxious errors in the first two games put them in a hole they had little chance to escape. By the time it struck midnight back home, their magic season was a three-and-out pumpkin." - Gordon Wittenmyer
"Another 100 years of this kind of baseball is enough to squeeze the life out of every Cubs fans alive, plus the next two or three generations. It was that agonizing for Cubs fans to watch, and for the players as well. Next year they'll get to answer questions about the 101-year curse." - Paul Sullivan
| 
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
[ report this ]
There's a lot of blame to go around, but I'm going to put it on both management & the players, but not what most people think.
That ridiculous, over-the-top, champagne spraying celebration for winning the division was disgusting!
That isn't winning anything meaningful, yet they went nuts as if they had just won the Series!
So after that, they had this big letdown, thinking the rest of the post-season was a breeze.
So the players get some blame, but it was the Cubs management that supplied the champagne, so they get the rest of the blame!
If there is a next time, no damn celebration until you win the pennant!
[ report this ]
Scooter, that argument doesn't really work - every team in baseball went with the over the top celebration, and yet one of them will ultimately win. I agree that it's nonsense for baseball teams to celebrate with every round of accomplishment. But why did the champagne letdown only affect the Cubs, and not the Dodgers, who had an identical celebration?
[ report this ]
Hey Scooter,
Any team that wins their division deserves to celebrate. The Cubs had to 'sit and wait' on the road last year to find out that they won. This year, they got to share it with the fans, a fan base that hasn't had much to celebrate over the years.
Sure, players and management tell you that their goal is always the big one but being the best in your division and your respective league (for home field advantage) IS something to get excited about.
However, retrospectively looking back on it celebration it DOES seem like a bunch of frivolity after a very horrible playoff appearance.
[ report this ]
Huh, I guess playing in the worst division in baseball actually doesn't prepare you to play good teams in the postseason..
[ report this ]
I blame the whole thing on Len and Bob.
[ report this ]
NL central is the worst division? really? you're an idiot. You can't have the wild card team come out of your division and still have it be the worst division. What about the West? 2 bottom feeders, one mediocre team and 2 teams that couldn't decide which one of them wanted to be in the playoffs. For most of the season the Cards and Brewers were fighting it out for the wild card and at times the division lead with the Cubs. And that's just the NL. What about the AL West? How many games ahead did the Angels finish of their second place competitor? 18? Maybe more?
[ report this ]
The sox won last night. I personally think it's cause they weren't so pressured into doing so. The pressure cubs fans put on the team this year was too much for anyone to handle...dear cubs fans, get over yourselves.
[ report this ]
Technically, it's at the end of the season that the anniversary ticks over. So now that the season is over for the cubs, it's now 100 years. So next season it's still 101 years until the season is over.
[ report this ]
@Joe Blow: The Cubs were 20-12 against the East, 48-33 against the Central, 23-10 against the West. So I'd say being 43-22 agsinst non-central teams should have prepared them very well for playing a non-central team in the playoffs.
[ report this ]
To everyone who seems to pull out the ol' "Curse" chestnut, (In Nelson Muntz Voice)- Ha-ha!
To every real Cubs fan who knows starting pitching and clutch hitting matters in the fall- I'm sorry. After all, World Series tears taste much better than NLDS tears.
Go Sox!
[ report this ]
"squeeze the life out of every Cubs fans alive, plus the next two or three generations"
That is something I could get behind with vigor. We certainly would have a better city
[ report this ]
Spook...why don't you go fuck yourself. You're not even from Chicago
And Cubs fans don't believe in curses, none of them do. The media perpetuates it year, after year after year.
[ report this ]
Go Sox!
[ report this ]
What does this thread even have to do with the White Sox? You know what the most pathetic thing about the White Sox and their fans is? That team does not have a single baseball rival that's as important to them, that they like to beat as much and revel in the misery of as much as a team that isn't even in their f'ing division. You take the Cubs rivals and it's Cards and now Brewers and maybe third is the White Sox, but only because they're so goddamn obnoxious and spiteful. You can't say the same for the Sox. The Cubs are by far their biggest rivals and before interleague play, the once-a-year games between them didn't even count. To care as much about a team in a different league as you do about your own team is pathetic.
[ report this ]
Oh you're so right, Mike. The Sox have no rivals. They didn't play 18 tough games against Minnesota and then have to beat them in a tiebreaker. No, there's no rivalry there. They never get fired up to play Detroit or Cleveland. There's no bad blood between them and the Twins. AJ Pierzynski doesn't get booed in Minnesota or Tampa or Anaheim.
Do you ever think that that person said Go Sox! because 1) he or she is a fan and the Sox are now doing better than the Cubs? and 2) just to get idiots like you riled up?
[ report this ]
For the love of all that is Holy, let's keep the name-calling to a minimum in at least one post, huh?
[ report this ]
I've never met a Sox fan that cares as much about the Twins or the Indians as they do about the Cubs. It's unreal and I'd have to say pretty rare in sports. I'm sure they do get fired up to play the Twins, but you don't have to be playing a rival to get fired up to get into the playoffs. That's not rivalry, that's the fire of wanting to be in the postseason.
And AJ...jesus, AJ has bad blood with everyone, not just teams he used to play on. AJ gets booed everywhere because everyone hates him. Rivalry has nothing to do with that, the guy is hated by fans and players everywhere.
[ report this ]
Btw, thanks for proving my point Moldy
[ report this ]
My heart goes out to all the real Cubs fans this weekend. I have to say I felt horrible for them listening to that game. I've got no love for L.A. and was hoping against all *reason* for a crosstown series. Bummer.
Sox fans, quit sweating The Cubs already it's embarrassing. If anything quit giving mike a reason to throw his little incoherent tantrums.
[ report this ]
Sox fans are always sweating the Cubs because they know that deep down, no one really cares about that team. The Bears, Cubs and sometimes even the Bulls trump that squad.
But hey -- you've always got 2005 right!? I mean, that shit never gets old. "Well we won in 2005!"
Yeah, and the Bears won in 1985!
jeezus crackers.
[ report this ]
The NL Central is pretty awful -- you have quite possibly the consistently worst team in baseball, two really terrible teams, and three very average teams. Who get fat records by beating each other.
As far as the rivalries: The Sox don't have two teams in the same division who are either exceptionally close or are part of a traditionally huge rivalry. I mean, Cubs fans aren't packing PNC Park to see them beat up on the Pirates. They're driving 90 miles to see their team play the Brewers. Or 4 hours to play their biggest rival, the Cardinals. It's not really the same..
[ report this ]
How is the NL Central any different from the AL Central, or any other division? The Royals are consistently one of the worst teams in baseball. Up until a couple of years ago, so were the Tigers. as someone pointed out earlier the Cubs were 43 and 22 against the rest of the NL.
as for the Sox division rivals...4 1/2 hours to Detroit, closer than STL. 5 1/2 hours to The Cleve, a little further than Cincy. Minn is over 6 hours. The Brewers are relatively new to the division and the rivalry but obviously the Sox don't have any other team that close. But the Tigers, Indians and Twins are all very close and yet most Sox fans can't muster up anything close to how they feel about a team in the National League.
[ report this ]
Well, for one, the Royals are *way* better than the worst of the NL Central (Pirates, Reds, Astros, etc..) Check out their interleague record for more proof.
The Sox don't really have a lot of long-standing rivalries, because most of the division is not only a good drive away, but they were historically in different divisions. The Sox were in with the Royals and Twins in the AL West, while the Indians and Tigers were in the AL East. The Cubs got to continue their long-running rivalry with the Cardinals, plus beat up on the awful Pirates...then kick ass on the terrible Astros, Reds, and Brewers once realignment kicked in. It's nowhere near the same!
[ report this ]
Well, for one, the Royals are *way* better than the worst of the NL Central (Pirates, Reds, Astros, etc..)
Huh... the Astros finished the year with 86 wins and the Royals finished with 75. I'm no math wiz but "*way* better" they are not. And don't give me your the division arguement. When only 2 out of 5 teams finish above .500 in the AL central and 4 out of 6 in the NL central finish above .500 it's clear to me which division is stronger.
If you are a Sox fan, go crazy. They got in to the playoffs. Be happy and have fun with it. Stop worrying about all the press going to the Cubs.